Sandbar Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the directors at Notesmaster Group. We’re an e-learning provider similar to Google Classroom and Edmodo for secondary-level and primary-level education working with UNICEF, World Bank, and various ministries of education. We’re a small program but we work with a number of satellite programs to broaden our reach.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sandbar Digital? 

Our unique offering is that we collaborate with local teachers to create interactive, engaging lessons. This means we need an intuitive, easy-to-use platform that is well-laid out and up to date in terms of design language. Throughout our 10-year partnership, Sandbar has provided design services for our web platform and various country-specific mobile applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sandbar handles our complete design process for web platforms and mobile applications, from low fidelity designs of how the website will look to high-definition work. The latter level results in a mock website. This is a huge task because our product is an e-learning platform with a number of different areas where people can create content. We do simpler things like registration, creation of content, and embedding and inserting things into our editor. Sandbar has also done a lot of work on icons in Adobe Illustrator. Moving to development, they recommend cost-effective React.js developers for us. 

Our design process requires collaborating with teachers on the ground in our partner countries to determine requirements, and this can become cumbersome. Sometimes they copy and paste the feature lists from other e-learning products, and other times they continue to introduce changes long after we would have liked the design to be finalized. Sandbar’s two-step process of low-fidelity and high-definition designs allows us to put a hard stop in the process of accepting new changes. Additionally, they are very innovative, which ensures that our products aren’t damagingly similar to the other platforms already out there. 

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a lead designer, an icon designer, a DevOps optimization resource, a mobile app developer, and a web developer. I personally engage with four of these resources. 

How did you come to work with Sandbar Digital? 

I used to have a small media business, and Sandbar did the design for it. When the business closed, I moved into the e-learning industry, and Sandbar presented their idea. We stopped working together for a time because of a push to develop local talent. This period saw us working with designers in the countries we partner with. These teams didn’t work out, however, so we moved back to working with Sandbar.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $150,000–$200,000 on this most recent project, but the total is around $300,000 to date. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2010. They’re currently building out the new version of our web platform and a mobile app. We recently delivered a mobile app with them to an international organization that supports children. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Our platform has won a World Summit Award from a large international governing organization for having the best societal impact in education. The other litmus for our success is that we’re starting several new programs with funding from international nonprofits and national governments. Our programs win out when countries are considering options because they are freely accessible to everyone and are continually being developed. 

Notesmaster is also a nominee to become a Digital Public Good (DPG). There are about 500 nominees, and only 40 of them have been accepted. This is a big deal for us, as it signals that all our content is freely accessible. It becomes accessible through its intuitive design; you don’t have to sit through a workshop and hours of presentations to understand the technology. A lot of this accessibility comes from the design that Sandbar creates. They bring restraint to the process that ensures users aren’t overwhelmed by features or confused by different levels of technical and digital competency. 

Sandbar strikes a balance between being modern and implementing the latest trends and utilizing a timeless design that will continue to look modern years into the future. Their solutions have both longevity and functionality in their design. 

How did Sandbar Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate in person and over Slack. Skype supports our collaboration as well. We use Trello to work through the design tasks, as well as Kanban and Jira. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sandbar’s design language is incredible, but their patience and understanding of the importance of our work stand out. We’re funded by large international organizations, so we may have a six-month or eight-month program with budgets of hundreds of thousands of dollars that take a long time to disburse payments. Sandbar has always been very patient in this regard. They don’t get frustrated with us. When I’ve been late with payments, they don’t make me feel bad. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. There has been a learning curve in the sense that developing a platform in Africa is a very specific task, and Sandbar has had to adapt to that. I appreciate the effort they’ve put into changing the applications to fit the African market. They don’t just give us a set of tools that work with America and Europe; rather, they take time to understand how each individual country that we partner with differs culturally from the others. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as clear as you can with as much information as you can provide. Guidance is okay, but allow Sandbar to get creative first. When you let them think freely, you get brilliant results, rather than derailing the design process and ending up with something mundane and ordinary. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm founder of Detective Hero, which runs murder mystery games via a GPS-based app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sandbar Digital?

I needed UX/UI design and full stack development for my mobile app.

What were your goals for this project?

I needed Android and iOS apps that look great and have excellent functionality, and come in within my budget.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I read reviews here on Clutch.co to form a shortlist, then spoke to the team and discussed my project. Josh at Sandbar got the concept of my game straight away, and had clear ideas for how to achieve it. This was great to find and made it an easy decision to go with Sandbar.

Describe the project in detail.

The first step was UX design, and they worked with my existing branding and desired style, and created beautiful prototypes. Then the UI and development started, with lots of feedback and testing.

What was the team composition?

I worked with Josh the director, and Anton and Swavek also did a lot of work on my project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Everyone who saw it loved the design! It was perfect for my prospective users and the brand. They created a beautiful app and it looks even better than I imagined.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There were some challenges with the main developer finding it harder to understand the game concept, I think due to language barrier. But Josh was a great project manager and kept everyone connected.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Amazing design, they're extremely responsive to emails and super quick to fix any problems.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The development took longer than initially expected, but I've heard this is often the case with software. I look forward to working with them in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a director at Whisper Consultancy. We're a small public relations agency that specializes in clients in the agriculture and life sciences sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sandbar Digital?

One of our clients had an app previously, but it never performed the way they wanted it to. There were issues with the software itself as well as with the supplier. We were looking for someone to come in and sort it out effectively.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app is for both iOS and Android and was made for farmers and their agricultural advisors. The app counts the number of slug pellets, for example, that it can see in order to let the farmer know if they are putting too much or too little on the ground. They developed the algorithm. It takes the image and counts the number of pellets that are visible—they were able to make the work a lot better than the previous supplier.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Josh (Director, Sandbar Digital) who has been our main contact.

How did you come to work with Sandbar Digital?

We found them through a previous employee of the agency who was referred to them by a colleague in another agency.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

There were two distinct stages. We worked with them in 2016 when the initial takeover took place, then from January to April 2018 we worked on new language versions of the app for other territories and did some improvements to the front- and backend.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I've been very happy with them. My client has been very happy with the service, the quality of the product, and the costs. They've done a good job and I'm happy to stay with them.

When it comes to cost, there is always room to be more efficient, but you have to weigh out the time it takes you to find those ways of being more efficient. Josh locates developers to bring onto his team for specific elements of apps.

How did Sandbar Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always responsive and would get back to us within an hour at the most. There were no issues with communication at all. They deliver on what they promise to do so quite effectively.

For a U.K. based company, the cost was on par. If we went the route of taking a more active role in the project management ourselves, it would have been cheaper. However, we didn’t have to spend the time and transaction costs of finding the people, so the total costs came out as the same or even more competitive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their availability, quick response to queries, and willingness to speak and discuss things that I wasn’t quite clear on. It's very easy to have a conversation with them to understand what we could and couldn’t do, how realistic our aspirations were, and if they were going to be achieved.

Are there any areas they could improve?

On first impressions, I wasn’t 100% sure they were going to be as responsive as I would have liked, but that dissipated because they were. The longer the project went on, they allayed those initial fears, and I was more and more pleased with what they were doing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a price comparison company based in London.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sandbar Digital?

We were looking for a mobile app solution that allowed people to easily view our price comparison data.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We researched developers using Clutch and narrowed it down to the three most competitive quotes. Sandbar was very competitively priced. When compared to other vendors in the same bracket, they most quickly understood the intricacies of the project.

Describe the project in detail.

To get started, we supplied Sandbar with wireframes, data in csv format, and interface designs as sketched images. Sandbar took the mechanics of the interface and redesigned it, then tied it all together with a backend that analyzed and presented the data. The app was built for both iOS and Android.

What was the team composition?

I had one point of contact who understood the project and ensured that the developers knew exactly what was required. There were 2-3 developers dedicated to the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Feedback has been great; the app works exactly as specified with no bugs. It is invaluable for us to reach our "app first, web second" customers.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their communication and workflow were very good. Any changes were made speedily and accurately the first time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They instantly understood exactly what was required for the whole project. There were no hidden costs. The quote was agreed upfront, and it didn't cost a penny more.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was very satisfied from start to finish.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization and your role there.

It’s a sports and fitness startup called MaxMyMinutes. We specifically deal with video content. I am one of the Cofounders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Sandbar Digital?

To get the solution from an idea on paper to a wireframe and then to work on an MVP. At the minute we’re scheduled to finalize the MVP in mid-September.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

I searched companies that partner with startups to get us through the wireframe stage - UX design and then onto an MVP. This is actually more than an MVP that we’ve come up with. They were invaluable in that process of allowing us to zero in on the functionality that we wanted to offer as part of our phase one. That was the first phase of work. Then we had a small proof of concept that proofed file uploading and file playing. The second deliverable was the UX document and when those were signed off on we moved on to build it.

How did you come to work with Sandbar Digital?

I interviewed a number of companies that I found and some on your [Clutch] list and some not on your list. One thing that was outstanding about Sandbar was how generous they were with their time as part of our process to really understand what I was trying to do.

With some companies, you get the sense that you’re being rushed in and out and they’re trying to quickly assess whether they can - the seriousness with which you’re about to commit funds. I didn’t feel that with these guys. They were genuinely curious and interested in what we were trying to do. They were very generous with their time to ensure that they really got what we were articulating and understood us. There was a degree of comfort when we were signing off on the initial client arrangement document that this was the company we wanted to work with.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

For this phase, we’re just over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing. Aside from the proof of concept and the UX we finished and signed off the milestones for two development sprints and we’ve got two more to go. We started in June of this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The software is going to be deployed on Android and Apple. We’ve been showing prospective content creators and prospective investors the proof of concept. The feedback that we’ve had from even being able to show prospective content creators and prospective investors in the project is massively positive. Rather than show a slide we actually have something that works on my phone and I can show them exactly what we’re talking about. That has been invaluable in this initial ramping up phase. The quality of the UX documentation has far exceeded our expectations.

How did Sandbar Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Perfect, it's great. We are kept up to date. I never feel I have to chase them [Sandbar] for the status of the project or feedback. They are always proactive. Once we commissioned the work the tools they recommended we use for collaboration allowed us to move the project on pretty quickly. We tend to use Slack as our main form of communication. I find that to be invaluable. That quickly got us to nail down a UX design.

What distinguishes Sandbar Digital from other providers?

I’ve had some really good discussions on both on Slack and in person with them around the best way to deliver a particular idea. Invariably you go in there with your own ideas and once you’ve pushed the idea around a bit you might find there’s a better way to do it.

Is there anything Sandbar Digital could have improved or done differently?

At this stage, no. I’m really pleased. For subsequent phases that we’re currently looking at, I would anticipate it will be Sandbar that we’ll be working with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We work for a small eLearning company called Notesmaster Works. We have a team of 12 people and subsidiaries in 28 countries. We’re creating a secondary level eLearning platform for the developing world. We're trying to bring new learning technologies but also a modern way of thinking, both to the ministries of education and to the schooling programs in the developing world.

What is your position?

I am the Director and Co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Sandbar Digital?

We started the platform in 2008 and needed a site that was easy to use. While in Jamaica, we realized we needed a way to reach students were missing class due to bad weather. When we built this platform, people had certain challenges using it. We approached Sandbar to help us redesign and simplify the platform, with the intention of building an app.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Sandbar's brief was to simplify the platform. They wanted to make it user-friendly for both experienced and non-experienced users of technology.

How did you come to work with Sandbar Digital?

My former colleague approached Sandbar to do a job for my previous employer. They did a pretty good job, so when we needed a redesign for our Notesmaster platform, we decided to go to Sandbar as well. They focused a lot on where to allocate our budget.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We received a multi-million dollar budget for a period of three years. A large sum of this is spent on our partnership with Sandbar Digital.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing. Our initiative in Namibia just won a World Summit Award, which is an award from the United Nations for Innovation Societal Impact. Our platform is different because it has the curriculum and syllabus already pre-loaded. Because of this, you need a platform that is responsive.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Sandbar's work allowed us to increase our registration base and widen appeal. The new platform design has provided for a more inviting feel. They've given us a good brand identity.

How did Sandbar Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well from a project management standpoint. Sandbar gave good leadership on how we managed building our cross-platform framework for the app so that we could get an iOS and an Android base working.

What distinguishes Sandbar Digital from other providers?

The easiest way to distinguish Sandbar Digital from others is the simple fact we still work with them. Sandbar Digital has great ideas and quick response time. Whenever I email or send a Skype message to them, they always get back to me quickly. It doesn’t matter if it's a weekend or the evening.

Is there anything Sandbar Digital could have improved or done differently?

The process to finalize the concept for the app took a little longer than we would have liked. I'm not blaming them for that; they did a thorough job. There was a lot of discussion of whether we should make a native or cross-platform app. In the end, they found a solution to our problems and created a cross-platform. That's not to say that they're perfect, but they're the best we've ever worked with and we’d like to continue the partnership.